NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Roger Williams University Men's Cross Country team claimed a ninth place finish at the five mile UMass-Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday morning. Competing in a crowded, 32-team field against teams at the Division I, II, and III level, the Hawks more then held their own finishing with a team score of 300.
The top finishing teams at the meet were Division I UMass- Lowell with 44 points, followed by Division III Trinity College (Conn.) with 107 and Worcester Polytechnic Institute with 108. RWU was also second among Commonwealth Coast Conference teams at the event, finishing behind only Suffolk who finished sixth.
Competing in their first 8K races of their career, RWU placed a trio of underclassmen in the top-50, out of 256 total runners.
Alexander Kalber (Middletown, Conn.) led the Hawks flock, finishing 42
nd, followed by
Ryan Shea (Andover, Mass.) in 46
th, and
Luke Gillett (Wyoming, R.I.) in 50
th.
Hawk Highlights
42
nd–
Alexander Kalber; 25:49.00 (PR)
46
th–
Ryan Shea; 25:57.30 (PR)
50
th–
Luke Gillett; 26:00.90 (PR)
82
nd–
Raffi Manzo; 26:32.90
93
rd–
Wesley Baccay; 26:45.10 (PR)
101
st–
Trey Generali; 26:52.30 (PR)
114
th–
Liam Engel; 27:13.70 (PR)
124
th–
Luke Strand; 27:28.00 (PR)
Coach's Corner
The men had a very successful day. Our depth is our strength and that was on full display Saturday. Two years ago, we finished 18th as a team at this meet, so to jump up nine spots in what was a very competitive field was fantastic, even with two of our top nine guys not racing.
The trio of sophmores, Alex Kalber,
Ryan Shea, and
Luke Gillett set the tone as they all finished within 11 seconds of each other. I was also impressed seeing how the freshman handled their first collegiate 8K race, as well as the success all the sub varsity guys had in their race. An all-around very satisfying day.
Both teams have the potential to be very good and I know getting the results we got today will help to motivate them to continue to want to get even better.
What's Next
Roger Williams at the Westfield State Invitational on October 9.
